South Africa detects new Covid-19 variant C.1.2

South Africa has identified a potential variant of interest VOI of Covid19 that is assigned to the PANGO lineage C12C12 was first identified in May 2021 during the third wave of Covid19 in the country said researchers from the countrys National Institute for Communicable Diseases NICD and the KwaZuluNatal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform It has since been detected across the majority of the provinces in South Africa and in seven other countries spanning Africa Europe Asia and Oceania the researchers reported in the study that is yet to be peerreviewed and is posted on preprint server medRxivThe variant has evolved from C1 one of the lineages that dominated the first wave of SARSCoV2 infections in South Africa and was last detected in January 2021 C12 is associated with increased transmissibility and reduced neutralisation sensitivity wrote the team including Cathrine Scheepers from NICD in the abstractCompared to C1 the new variant has mutated substantially and is more mutations away from the original virus detected in Wuhan than any other Variant of Concern VOC or VOI detected so far worldwideAccording to the study C12 has 418 mutations per year It is approximately 17fold faster than the current global rate and 18fold faster than the initial estimate of SARSCoV2 evolution A similar short period of increased evolution was also associated with the emergence of the Alpha Beta and Gamma VOCs said the researchers suggesting that a single event followed by the amplification of cases drove a faster mutation rateAbout 52 per cent of the spike mutations identified in C12 have previously been identified in other VOIs and VOCs These include D614G common to all variants and E484K and N501Y which are shared with Beta and Gamma with E484K also seen in Eta and N501Y in AlphaFurther the study also found consistent increases in the number of C12 genomes in South Africa on a monthly basis rising from 02 per cent in May to 16 per cent in June and 20 per cent in July The researchers stated that it is similar to the increases seen in Beta and Delta in South Africa during early detection As of August 20 2021 80 sequences that match the C12 lineage have been listed on the openaccess database GISAID Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza DataAlso Read Gangster Faheem Machmach succumbs to Covid19 in KarachiMore study is needed to determine the functional impact of these mutations which likely include neutralising antibody escape and to investigate whether it confers advantage over the Delta variant Scheepers saidMeanwhile India has also reported the presence of a new sublineage AY12 of the Delta variant of Covid19 which was recently classified in Israel A recent report by the Indian SARSCoV2 Genomics Consortium INSACOG many cases in India that were earlier classified as Delta are now being reclassified as AY12This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever